19-20 May 2016, Ghent, Belgium
URL: http://www.eqtis.ugent.be/nwasv2/

Email: nwasv2@ugent.be

The GLIMS and EQTIS research units at Ghent University will host a two-day international symposium on new advances in research on syntactic variation on 19-20 May 2016. The event is a follow-up to the first ‘New Ways of Analyzing Syntactic Variation’ symposium that took place at the Radboud University Nijmegen in November 2012. Its overall purpose is to stimulate discussion and interaction between researchers bringing new theoretical and/or methodological expertise to the linguistic study of syntactic variation, broadly construed.

Syntactic variation is a multidimensional concept: it can refer to the existence (in a single language variety) of several syntactic patterns or constructions ”competing” for the same functional space (i.e, to grammatical alternations), or to any kind of sociolinguistic or ”lectal” variation in the formal and/or functional properties of syntactic patterns, along regional, social, diachronic, stylistic, ethnic, gender, etc. dimensions (i.e., to syntactic patterns or constructions as sociolinguistic variables), or to a combination of both.

Syntactic variation is a major area of research in different schools of linguistics – including, but not limited to, construction grammar and related usage-based approaches, generative grammar, variationist sociolinguistics (cf. the advent of socio-syntax), psycholinguistics, language acquisition research, and computational linguistics/NLP – and has accordingly been approached from quite divergent theoretical and methodological perspectives. A common trend in all of these approaches is the increasing use of advanced methods and tools for the compilation and analysis of empirical data. In addition, there is a growing consensus that linguistic argumentation demands converging evidence based on an interdisciplinary approach and a growing body of work hence combines multiple empirical approaches to tackle one and the same linguistic phenomenon (e.g. combining advanced corpus analyses with survey and psycholinguistic experimental designs).

NWASV2 offers a forum for original work on syntactic variation, in any language or (present or historical) language variety – or varieties, for that matter – and from any theoretical perspective, in which an awareness of recent theoretical insights and advances is paired with a concern for appropriate empirical validation, methodological innovation and interdisciplinarity.

Keynote Speakers:

Artemis Alexiadou (University of Stuttgart)
Hendrik De Smet (University of Leuven)
Stefan Th. Gries (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Stefan Grondelaers (Radboud University, Nijmegen)
Robert Hartsuiker (Ghent University)

Organising Committee:

Bert Cappelle (University of Lille 3), Timothy Colleman (Ghent University, GLIMS), Ludovic De Cuypere (Ghent University, GLIMS), Gert De Sutter (Ghent University, EQTIS), Emmeline Gyselinck (Ghent University, GLIMS), Natalia Levshina (FRS-FNRS, Université Catholique de Louvain), Clara Vanderschueren (Ghent University, GLIMS), Freek Van de Velde (University of Leuven), Annelore Willems (Ghent University, EQTIS)

Call for Papers:

We welcome submissions for regular 20 minute oral presentations (not including 5 to 10 minutes for discussion) and for poster presentations. Abstracts can be submitted via Easy Chair using the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nwasv2

Abstracts should be anonymous (please also avoid explicit and excessive self-references in running text) and can contain up to 1,000 words, including data and references. Also, abstracts should clearly state the main research question(s), methodology and (expected) results. Precedence shall be given to contributions which combine a theoretically and/or methodologically innovative approach with a solid empirical basis. The conference language is English.

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: 15 October 2015
Notification of acceptance by: 15 Dec 2015